The present invention relates generally to a hand covering. More specifically, the present invention relates to a hand covering with a fixedly attached, reversible cleaning membrane.
Several known cleaning devices consist of a glove or mitten constructed with a cleaning material. A user's hand can be inserted into the glove or mitten thereby covering the user's hand with the cleaning material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,617 to Nelson discloses a polishing mitten where at least one surface is an absorbent material and a strap is extended around the use's wrist; one surface of the mitten can apply shoe polish and the other surface can to shine shoes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,388 to Ortolivo discloses a waterproof scouring glove with cleaning materials disposed on critical portions of the glove, e.g., the palm, thumb, and fingers.
Other known hand coverings each have been combined with a removably attachable cleaning cloth. For example, U.S Pat. No. 5,815,876 to Overseth discloses a gripping pad into which a hand can be inserted and a cleaning/polishing pad that can be removably attached to the gripping pad by a hook-and-loop fastener. U.S. Pat. No. 2,651,071 to Dyer et al. discloses a mitt with cleaning pads that are removably attachable using u-clip (i.e., bobby pins).
These known hand-insertable cleaning devices, however, suffer several shortcomings. First, with known hand-insertable cleaning devices that are constructed entirely of the cleaning material, some portions of the cleaning material are used less frequently (e.g., portions along the side of the device) than other portions of the cleaning material (e.g., portions near the palm); consequently, less used portions of the cleaning materials are wasted. With known hand-insertable cleaning devices that are constructed only partially of the cleaning material, additional and sometimes difficult manufacturing steps are required to construct the device.
Second, known hand-insertable cleaning devices with a removably attachable cleaning material allow the possibility that the cleaning material can be misplaced while unattached. In addition, the means for attaching the cleaning material to the hand inserted portion are not always effective because the cleaning material can be inadvertently separated from the hand-insertable device during the applied stress of cleaning.